Tom Van Dusen, Ottawa Sun
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
PERTH -- Randy Hillier announced his resignation as militant president of the Ontario Landowners Association yesterday.
While he cited a desire to rest, spend more time with his family and explore new opportunities, rumour had it that a growing number of OLA activists thought it time to try another personality at the helm.
More than anything, the OLA became known for the defiance, bombast, call to civil disobedience when required, and media savvy of its president.
Hillier led disgruntled troops of the "Rural Revolution" to many showdowns with bureaucratic enforcers, usually over the claimed rights of individuals to conduct reasonable business without restriction on their own property.
Conceived by Hillier and a handful of other rural residents almost four years ago, the OLA began as the Lanark Landowners Association.
After it spread to 14 counties, the umbrella OLA was formed.
Under his direction, the association rapidly gained influence.
At first dismissed as a clutch of renegades without a constituency, it soon became apparent that the Lanark Landowners Association followed by the Ontario Landowners Association had tapped into a deep vein of rural discontent.
From outsiders looking in, the Landowners gained a position where their stand on the sanctity of property rights began to be taken seriously.
During the dozens of rallies, blockades and demonstrations staged under Hillier, the most serious police action came last year in Cornwall when the president was hauled off to jail merely for entering grounds being used for a public event.
Now, he said, the time has come for others to "move the OLA and Rural Revolution to even greater heights and successes."
Meanwhile, he said he'll continue to advocate for less government intrusion into the private lives and property of Canadians through the pages of The Landowner magazine. And he'll keep his hand in the association as a volunteer on the Lanark Landowners Board of Governors.
"Our greatest achievements are yet to come."
With rural Ottawa farmer Jack MacLaren as chairman, a steering committee has been established to manage "this transition phase" and report on a future course by the end of February.
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